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Space 1999 Comlock, can you hear me now????

31K views 108 replies 19 participants last post by  rworne 
#1 · (Edited)
I always liked Space 1999, all the hardware looked like it could really work..... My favorite, aside from the Eagle, was the Comlock, how cool it would be to have a small Video Walkie-Talkie like that.....:nerd: Well, one day, as I walked though the toy department of Target, I ran across the "Spy Gear Video Walkie-Talkies", and I just couldn't leave well enough alone.....:wink2: Unfortunately this will not be a drop-in build, but I think it can be done, so I hope some of you might like the thread enough to stick with it and may want to give it a try......:thumbsup:



 
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#3 · (Edited)
And now part three with more to come..... Most of my work has been figuring a way to get the circuit board and display to fit without too much alterations to the exterior.....:freak: I also wanted the "Spy Gear" splash changed to the Comlock logo when the unit is powered up, done.....:wink2:





 
#4 ·
There are people here that I can't tell if they're genius level makers or just plain insane. :)

What a beautiful, perfect project. It's just a spectacular idea and I can't wait to see how it works out.

Of course the screen, to be accurate, should be B&W but I'm sure they WOULD have been color had there been an available tiny color screen back then.

At least they didn't do a 'Supermarionation' cheat in reverse, taking a 13" color TV, building an oversized Comlock shell around it (with a hand!) and filmed it as a tight closeup... :)
 
#6 · (Edited)
There are people here that I can't tell if they're genius level makers or just plain insane. :)

Of course the screen, to be accurate, should be B&W but I'm sure they WOULD have been color had there been an available tiny color screen back then.
Thank you very much Steve, I think, for the very kind support and comments....:laugh:

And the display on the Comlock was color in season two, at least in "The Rules of Luton", scroll down to "Continuity - Alpha Tech"

The Rules of Luton Episode Guide- Space: 1999 Catacombs

 
#9 · (Edited)
Space 1999 Comlock, can you hear me now????
Yes, yes I can! Very beautiful, I always like the crazies who do strange and wonderful things! If you are using a walkie talkie electronics for the screen and video camera, do you plan on using the the speaker and microphone as well? I always loved the Space: 1999 comlock. After looking at photos, etc of it, I wondered at certain aspects of the design. The main (number) keypad (3x3 buttons) is patterned after the telephone, yet the last row of buttons is missing - '*', '0' and '#'. It seems the 2 main functions are a video telephone and the door opener (and 3rd would be a tracking device to give the owner's current location). Apart from the on/off button, there should be the 3 volume control buttons (up/down/mute). Not sure what other buttons it would need.

I always wondered if someone was crazy enough to make an elaborate comlock that was say a tv remote control. Want to change the channel? Pull out the comlock and aim it at the tv and bbbeeeeepp, the channel changes. And anyone more crazy can tie in the comlock to their garage door opener remote. To open/close your garage, just pull out your comlock and point it at your garage door and bbbeeeeeppp, the door opens. Press the button again and bbbeeeeppp, the door closes. Just saying. :)
 
#10 ·
The Comlock is a case of 'style over substance', that is, it's visually interesting, it helps propel the story along, it gives an actor something to do with their hand, some 'business' (actors LOVE having props because they use that to add to the performance) but other than being a door opener and videophone (because FUTURE!) I don't think much time or effort was put into defining the operations or limitations. It was 'blank clay' that writers, directors and actors could mold as they saw fit. I can't recall a single instance where someone used the number buttons.

Same with the Stun Gun/Laser. It's got the 4 emitters, they're color coded, there's matching buttons on the hand grip that one would logically assume had something to do with the emitters (one could guess it was maybe stun, heavy stun, heat, kill or something akin to that) but again, never used in that way, and they had to add that giant "stun/kill" switch on top to make such things clear.

I make the assumption that part of the issue with the Comlock was a carryover from the supposed UFO Year 2, where such strict identification and access control would make some sense. Not that it's THAT secure as it was quite common to klonk someone over their head and swipe their Comlock to get past security blocking. :)
 
#11 ·
In Breakaway, the pilot of Space: 1999, the one thing that I always felt strange was that (when Collins went mad and cracked the window with his helmet, Koenig and Bergman dragged the man out of the room} Koenig had to reach for his commlock to close the door....rather than just hit the damn button on the panel. Window blows out, explosive decompression ensues. And just a moment before, Koenig is fiddling with his commlock.... Too close to call and somewhat irrational.
 
#12 ·
Valid and truth.

Of course I'd be more concerned about single-pane windows that can be cracked by a couple of smacks from a space helmet... :)

It's bad from an insulation and heat transfer POV, not to mention that we generally see the indication of two-layer glass in most all windows except that time the Moon was given an atmosphere and maintenance went around installing OPENING WINDOWS in Main Mission. Yikes.

Hm. Then there was the time Alpha was under attack and I think Main Medical had a window that was about to go and the wacky tan shaving foam crack sealer was ALMOST working when BAM WOOOOOOOSSSSSHHHH bye bye other doctor...WHEW good thing that was just a dream!
 
#13 ·
Steve H: ROFLMAO!!! Yeah, I just saw the episode where they lost the doctor. Oh, well! Yes, single pane windows... what a pain! (Sorry!). Every now and then, I rewatch some of the shows while working on something. Keeps me honest when I think about how I would have done things if I controlled the show.
 
#14 ·
There was a lot of weird stuff going on in England and their film/TV industry, and with Sir (later Lord) Lew Grade and ITC (and I blame the New York office for most of the major nonsense), and the personal problems between Gerry and Silvia Anderson that just seemed to combine into a huge mess. I wonder if the finished product, especially Year 2, would have been better if all that wasn't going on.

I've been on an interesting journey in watching shows from the time of my youth, looking at things with more aware eyes, a broader background, more knowledge. Some shows I have a much greater respect for, even if only the technical aspects. Other shows are a complete slog to watch and some, I just give up. I LOVED Space:1999 when it came out. My friends and I had viewing parties (as this was pre-home video recording) but Year 2 didn't air in full on my local stations, so I had no idea of the overall quality. Now in the age of DVD, I'm sad to say this is one of the Anderson shows I just can't re-watch. Year 1 is fine, I see so much potential in the stories they told, there's even hints of a 'thru-line', the potential of an actual story arc in play. Year 2, it just all went to crap. The budget cuts are obvious, the stories often made no sense (let's face it, most of the time Maya should have been able to solve the problem of the day in the first or second act, so they had to find reasons why she didn't.)

Another Anderson show that is just so dire in my eyes is Supercar. Even turning things over to my 'inner 8 year old' it was just...arrgggh. The third? 'The Secret Service'. I have no idea why they thought the concept was any good at all. I had a struggle with Joe 90 because man, that show was FLAT. I mean crazy low energy. I've come to think that Joe wasn't actually a boy at all but an android. It would explain the whole thing with the 'Big Rat' and the memory engram transference except there were a few episodes where his father used the machine to gain some specific skill as well.

So I talk some trash about Space:1999 Year 2. I won't dismiss the effects however, that was solid work.
 
#16 ·
See, that's part of the entire problem going on back then. Too much micro-management from the New York office ("Do this! NO, don't do that, do this! No wait, do this other thing!") causing a kind of schizophrenia during production, the whole business of working with that Italian network who, if I recall reading right, kept playing games when it came time for them to cut some checks. Lew Grade had too many outside fingers in the pie, costing money. Even the successful business model of cranking out low cost features that would run on TV in America and in theaters in Europe and the U.K. got shelved in that odd desire to try and make a giant Hollywood style blockbuster.

I have no idea what kind of quality a Year 3 of Space:1999 would have had. I can only assume there would have been more cost-cutting and man, I just don't know where they could have cut costs more. The selling point for the show was, in part, the theatrical quality special effects and if you cut THAT back, what is there?

Would they have something happen to Maya that took away her transformation ability? Eliminate her totally (her make-up was time consuming as well as all the extra costumes for her 'monsters' or all the wildlife hired)? Maybe make a HUGE change and cut Bain and Landau loose? Their fees plus 'upkeep' were a significant chunk of the budget. Could a Year 3 have worked with Tony and Maya (perhaps de-powered and 'just an alien') as leads?

We'll never know.
 
#18 · (Edited)
#19 ·
Good lord it's just sheer wizardry.

OK, allow me to rationalize. We never see these buttons being used, so we never see them 'push in' as they would appear to do. So, they could indeed be tactile touch surfaces, the reason, rational for being raised like a telephone touch-tone telephone is to make them easy to find while wearing spacesuit gloves.

Mind, the way your working it (capacitor touch means basically the conductivity of skin closes the contact, yes? Please correct me if I err. Tullio at Weapons
Shop of Isher would have KILLED for this kind of tech back in the '70s, much better than a couple of brass tacks one pressed against to close a circuit. :) ) of course wearing spacesuit gloves wouldn't work, but the idea is sound.

Can't wait to see how it all works out! Where does the camera go? That's one of the "dahh huh but.." things never really addressed in the show. They act like the camera and and screen are the same thing kinda sorta.
 
#20 ·
OK, allow me to rationalize. We never see these buttons being used, so we never see them 'push in' as they would appear to do. So, they could indeed be tactile touch surfaces, the reason, rational for being raised like a telephone touch-tone telephone is to make them easy to find while wearing spacesuit gloves.

Mind, the way your working it (capacitor touch means basically the conductivity of skin closes the contact, yes?
.
Hi Steve,
I don't believe the buttons actually moved or did anything on the prop, But that shouldn't stop us, right?????:grin2: As far as the "capacitive touch", it's more proximity, about 2mm to 3mm, not physical touch.:wink2:
 
#22 ·
There are special gloves with small fine wires embedded in the tips to work smartphones which generally use a capacitive touch circuit. The space gloves could be designed that way as well.

The capacitive circuit will work like a proximity switch. When the body gets near the sense wire, the body's capacitance "detunes" the wire, and the circuit detects it. Kinda like when you used to grab the old rabbit ear antennas or get near the external antenna of a radio.

Teslabe, keep the the great work. You amaze me with your builds. The Comlock is so cool. Let me know when you want to sell the extra one, I'd like to get in on it... I normally wouldn't be interested in a prop like this but now that it works almost like the "real" one shown on the show, I would like to add this to my collection of unusual items. It will look cool next to my "working" lightsaber.



May the FORCE be with you and have a magical day!

MagicBill
 
#24 ·
Should note that when Commissioner Simmonds steals Koenig's commlock, I believe I recall Koenig playing with the buttons on Simmond's commlock.... I will have to watch it again. BTW, in "Guardians of Piri", about 20 minutes in, a couple of pilots get into an Eagle's cockpit seats, which, as usual roll forward and lock in position. BUT, interestingly, the command console ALSO rolls forward about 10 inches to a foot and locks into position! I don't recall ever noticing that before!
 
#25 ·
Watching the episode, I noted something I'd not seen before. As John and Alan slid their seats back (after landing on Piri, roughly 16 minutes in), the control handles rotated down!

But huh. at about 23 minutes, John gets back to the Eagle, and as you say, the seats roll forward AND the control console slides towards the people! AND the control handles are up and ready to use again.

Interesting, John uses the control handles to pull his chair forward.

I chalk it up to they were still figuring out how things worked, what you were supposed to do. :)
 
#26 ·
I loved the first season. The second "series" was "okay", being the only fair on TV that was new "science fiction". As usual, good stories and bad. My biggest problem with Maya was the lack of conservation of mass. But, just occurred to me, mass and energy are interchangeable. Perhaps, she had the ability to store mass as energy somewhere, another dimension she could access? Who knows. Certainly, nobody thought about it short of shape changing.
 
#27 ·
I think the large problem was things happened 'just because' . Rules weren't carved in stone. I can't recall, could Maya shift from one form to another without pausing as her normal humanoid self? If yes, they forgot she could do that.

But yeah, conservation of mass, that's a big deal. Ya know that episode where John and Maya had to deal with the bossy trees and the three aliens trying to kill our heroes? Why didn't she just turn into some insane powerful space beast and punch them? Or some other way?

I have to say, the Year 2 reduced set of Command Centre really bugged the living daylights out of me. So crowded, so limited, everybody doing all the jobs (every station seemed to do every job), the changing faces that we generally never saw unless they were in CC, it just felt so darn cheap. Like in-your-face cheap.

That kind of thing seems to imply a lack of respect for the production and it's potential.
 
#28 ·
I can't remember where I heard it, but there was an in universe explanation on why the characters stopped using Main Mission and switched to Command Center. Main Mission was too open and visible (and therefore vulnerable) to alien attack. They switch to Command center which was smaller and deeper (underground) and therefore more difficult to get damaged by an alien attack. I do remember an interview with Barbara Bain who said that the Main Mission set was large and very beautiful but it was a nightmare to light and film in. That, along with the reduced budget for season 2, bye bye Main Mission set and hello Command Center set.
 
#29 ·
The other thing about season 2, is that Alpha must have lost some serious power supplies. The hallways and rooms were always underlit. It amaze me that have the Alpha contingent didn't commit suicide from simply being in closed in, dark spaces all the time.

I think they did show - once - Maya doing a shape change without going back to human form. Tiger to predator bird(?) comes to mind.
 
#31 ·
Hi Opus,
Not a lot of exciting work, just the small detail that always slow a build, plus it's summer, so work will slow for now, I hope you hang around, I will finish it.....:wink2:
I ran across a "new, at least for me" mp3 player and I wish I had it when I build my B-9..... They are nice and small with a built-in 3 watt amp......:thumbsup:


TF Card U Disk Mini MP3 Player Audio Voice Module Board For Arduino DFPlay | eBay

 
#33 ·
So I go away for a little bit (not by choice..I mean, a choice was involved but being off HT was 'collateral damage' so to speak. I debate talking about it but not in this thread, don't worry Opus. :) ) and I find...

What? Adding an ADDITIONAL display to the Comlock?! Interesting! I mean, makes sense.

Beautiful work as always, Teslabe!

Hey, did you ever figure out where you're going to place the camera? One always got the impression that the screen was kinda sorta also the camera in the show (think conceptially like a speaker/microphone and yes, a screen that was both transmitter and receptor requires VASTLY different mechanicals, I understand :) ) but that's TV logic at work.
 
#36 ·
Hi Steve,
Thank you for your support, sorry for the delay in my replay, just got back from a short trip and this weekend I'll be putting together a mini CNC Mill kit I got off ebay, so next week I hope to get back on this build.... I will be placing the camera in the bottom of the front grill, may not be accurate but then the prop never really worked.....:wink2:
 
#34 ·
I was looking at some screenshots last week and I found something interesting. It was a shot of Koenig standing with a comlock on his belt. The orientation of the buttons (the number keys) were readable. They are pointing away from the user. If the user were to hold the comlock to use, the buttons will be upside down. This makes no sense to me as they should be pointing in the opposite direction so when the user has the comlock in their hand, it should be readable to the user. I take this to be an 'error'. I don't think anyone has changed the orientation of the buttons (they just match was seen on the show).
 
#41 ·
Not a big update but I'm back at it and it's going well, did have a sensitivity issue with the switch circuit, the company that made the board didn't install the capacitor, but will order some parts and will move on
next weekend and do a better video....



 
#42 ·
I will state again, You, sir, are a wizard of epic power and ability. I am in awe of your skills.

I would be content to make a Comlock that went "Brrreeep" when you push the big 'open a door' button. :)

You know, you might as well start planning how to adapt an actual cell phone to work in a Comlock shell. It's the inevitable next step. :)

(actually, an older 'flip phone', tie the keyboard to the Comlock keys, embed the cell phone screen in the proper place... )
 
#43 ·
Thank you so very much Steve, I'm humbled when someone just looks at what I do and says "nice", you, on the other hand truly makes my day with
the support you show, thank you my friend......:wave: The advantage to using the Spy Gear "video walkie/talkies" is, it's much easier to hack/modify, it was only meant
to do one thing, fortunately for me that one thing was what I wanted/needed......:wink2:
 
#44 ·
I was raised to respect and admire careful, quality work. My grandfather was an engineer and taught me the importance of doing things right, so it's easy for me to praise such obvious skill and attention to detail. I've seen it in all your builds. You are one of the people here who can do things I could NEVER aspire to, but I would gladly turn to you if I could afford some of my whimsical special projects.

For example, it strikes me that now, with modern micro mini super bright LEDs, the Aduro controller tech and small batteries, it would be possible to make a EE 'Doc' Smith 'Lensman' Lens, one that does the whole 'shifting poly-chromatic light' effect. I would envision 'growing' the Lens itself using 3-D printing to capture the 'made from millions of cells' look, and so on and so on. Someday I'll be able to afford such a foolish item. :)

There is a wealth of fabricating skill here at Hobbytalk I would gladly tap into to make cool stuff happen. Just need that stupid money thing.

Anyway, keep at it! I love how you saw something and it sparked the idea of "hey, I can re-purpose this to..." usage. That's genius thinking. :)
 
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